Hyderabad: Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao on Monday said the Dalit empowerment programme would serve its true meaning and purpose only when Dalits are aware enough to define their own development and become partners in development. Innovative employment schemes should be formulated immediately for implementation under Telangana Dalit Bandhu scheme and they should be placed before the beneficiaries for their economic empowerment and to make them self-reliant, the Chief Minister said.
Addressing a review meeting at Pragathi Bhavan here, the Chief Minister asked the officials concerned to ensure that the Dalit empowerment scheme reaches the genuine beneficiaries. He also instructed the officials to first get themselves sensitised and later sensitise the beneficiaries. The review meeting discussed the guidelines of the Dalit Bandhu Scheme and the employment schemes to be designed.
“At the field level while implementing the pilot project in Huzurabad Assembly constituency, visit villages and understand the Dalit families’ conditions, and elicit their views. In tune with the changing times and circumstances, identify different kinds of jobs which facilitate quick financially stability of the Dalits and transform these jobs into schemes,” he said.
Chandrashekhar Rao urged the officials to sensitise themselves about the pilot project and plan out the field visits, the people to meet and the information to be elicited from them. The officials should also take the views of people who are involved in the development of Dalits and take steps to incorporate them in the schemes, he said, adding that a workshop with higher officials, prominent Dalit employees, Dalit organization leaders and Dalit activists would be held shortly.
In tune with the decisions taken at the workshop, officials should visit Dalit areas, interact with the families, meet prominent Dalits about the issues they face, and based on their suggestions and advice, prepare the schemes, he said, and directed officials to gather information on their requirements. “The scheme should be designed in a manner that would facilitate income generation to the Dalit families immediately,” he said.